Commentary

A Tennessee judge should not have barred a couple from naming their child “Messiah,” said the executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee.

On Thursday (Aug. 8), the parents of the child appeared in Cocke County Chancery Court in Tennessee because they could not agree on a last name.

The Inland Northwest Freethought Society and the Spokane Secular Society will join forces again this summer and host a booth at the Kootenai County Fair in Idaho (Aug. 21 - 25) and the Spokane County Interstate Fair (Sept.6-15).  This will be our second year at the Idaho Fair and the third for the Spokane shindig. I heartily invite any of the Spokane Faith & Values contributors and readers who may be visiting either fair to stop by our table and say hi.

I can see how one might think that reality television presents a skewed view of reality.

Twenty-five teachers from the Charles Lwanga College of Education in Zambia are currently at Gonzaga University as part of a program Gonzaga designed to help them, "realize their dream of turning their school into an independent university," according to a press release.

Gonzaga also said in the press release that it hopes the effort will assist the college in transforming teacher education in Zambia.

A new voice is emerging in the evangelical community, and it’s turning away from the church’s vocal opposition to homosexuality in favor of a more tolerant attitude.

Researchers at Baylor University found that 24 percent of evangelicals were “ambivalent,” meaning they support civil unions or legal recognition of gay relationships, despite harboring a moral opposition to homosexuality.

While I certainly don’t think Mormons are the only religious group shown in a negative light in popular media, I’ll freely admit to being sensitive to the way my religious heritage is portrayed. Perhaps that’s because the depictions are so rarely positive.

This past weekend, the AMC show “Hell on Wheels” premiered its third season.

How Reality TV is ruining the next generation sounds like a great concept for a Reality TV show. Get a bunch of 20-somethings, representative of different demographics, a suburban kid, an urban kid, an atheist, an evangelical Christian and a mixture of all ethnic groups, and make sure they are all Hollywood gorgeous